The Most Dangerous Place on Earth: If you liked Thirteen Reasons Why, you'll love this

(Paperback)

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'An astonishing debut novel ... with a stunning constellatoin of characters' voices and a fiercely compelling story, it's impossible to put down, or to forget.' - Megan Abbott

The wealthy enclaves north of San Francisco are not the paradise they appear to be, and nobody knows this better than the students of a local high school. Despite being raised with all the opportunities money can buy, these vulnerable kids are navigating a treacherous adolescence in which every action, every rumour, every feeling, is potentially postable, shareable, viral.

Abigail Cress is ticking off the boxes toward the Ivy League when she makes the first impulsive decision of her life: entering into an inappropriate relationship with a teacher. Dave Chu, who knows himself at heart to be a typical B student, takes desperate measures to live up to his parents' crushing expectations. Emma Fleed, a gifted dancer, balances rigorous rehearsals with wild weekends. Damon Flintov returns from a stint at rehab looking to prove that he's not an irredeemable screw-up. And Calista Broderick, once part of the popular crowd, chooses, for reasons of her own, to become a hippie outcast.

Into this complicated web, an idealistic young English teacher arrives from a poorer, scruffier part of California. Molly Nicoll strives to connect with her students - without understanding the middle school tragedy that played out online and has continued to reverberate in different ways for all of them.

Written with the rare talent capable of turning teenage drama into urgent, adult fiction, THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE ON EARTH makes vivid a modern adolescence lived in the gleam of the virtual, but rich with sorrow, passion, and humanity.

Reviews

In sharp and assured prose, roving among characters, Lindsey Lee Johnson plumbs the terrifying depths of a half-dozen ultraprivileged California high school kids. I read The Most Dangerous Place on Earth in two chilling gulps. It's a phenomenal first book. - Anthony Doerr

An astonishing debut novel . . . With a stunning constellation of characters' voices and a fiercely compelling story, it's impossible to put down, or to forget. - Megan Abbott

The characters in Lindsey Lee Johnson's debut novel affected me in a way I can't remember feeling since I binge-watched all five seasons of Friday Night Lights. . . . You'll walk away feeling like you could revisit a hallway drama armed with bulletproof perspective. - Glamour US

In her stunning debut, Johnson . . . explores the fallout among a group of teens-an alpha girl turned stoner, a striving B student, an Ivy League wannabe-who prove, in the end, less entitled than simply empty and searching. An eye-opener. - People (Book of the Week)

Gripping . . . Each chapter offers a vignette into a more complicated interior life-ones that involve inappropriate student-teacher relationships, cheating on SATs, drugs, sex, and house parties. . . . Lindsey Lee Johnson works a convincing assortment of different voices into her debut. - GQ

In her superb first novel, Lindsey Lee Johnson deftly illuminates a certain strain of privileged American adolescence and the existential minefield these kids are forced to navigate. Elegantly constructed and beautifully written, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth reads like Jane Austen for this anxious era. - Seth Greenland

Author Bio

Lindsey Lee Johnson holds a master of professional writing degree from the University of Southern California and a BA in English from the University of California at Davis. She has served as a tutor and mentor at a private learning center, where her focus has been teaching writing to teenagers. Born and raised in Marin County, she now lives with her husband in Los Angeles.